Watch the World burn
by The Eternal Guest
Summary: The prophecy of the Dragonborn at no point actually says the Dragonborn will win. This Dragonborn notices it, and decides that, maybe, he's not meant to win. Maybe Alduin is meant to win. Contains spoilers for the main questline, specifically Alduin's Wall, and also contains references to previous ES games, and, should you have no idea what Aurbis is, it might help to look that up.


The idea behind this story came from spending _far_ too much time looking at the prophecy of the Dragonborn and what it might mean. So, I bid you, read and enjoy! And review, if possible.  
The prophecy is directly quoted from Skyrim, and is in no way my property.

Sometimes you can't stop the world from crumbling around you. Sometimes the only choice you have is how to react. Do you panic and try to avoid the unavoidable? Or do you watch as the world collapses, and admire its terrible beauty?

The Blades disagree with me. They don't think what I'm doing is right. They read their prophecy, and think it has one outcome.

But prophecies always have more than one possible outcome.

They say 'The Wheel turns upon the last Dragonborn' means that the world depends upon me, that I _have_ to save it.  
But it doesn't. The Wheel turns. An endless cycle of creation and destruction. Our Era's, the Dawn, the Mythic, the First, Second, Third and Fourth, all of them part of this one turn of the Wheel.

It starts in the Dawn Era, the start of the cycle. Nirn is created and life comes upon it. Then the life shapes itself, forms itself to it's surroundings in the Mythic Era. Then we measure time, we track significant events, the Numbered Eras. And then we end, the cycle complete.  
And the Wheel turns again.

Paarthunax is right. This world is but an egg, created to give life to the next one. It was Alduin's purpose to be defeated once, and it is his purpose to succeed now. Because the Wheel could not turn before all that was to happen had happened.

"When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world  
When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped  
When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles  
When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls  
When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding  
The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn."

That is the prophecy. The World-Eater could not consume the world before it was the world's time to be consumed. When last Alduin roamed the sky, the events that would precede him had not come to pass, so his purpose too, would have to wait.

But now, it is time.

"When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world."  
This happened long after the Alduin's first attempt. The Imperial Simulacrum. Jagar Tharn, Imperial Battlemage, impersonated Emperor Uriel Septim VII, and locked him in Oblivion. The key to release him; the staff of Chaos, was shattered, into eight pieces, and spread across Tamriel.  
Chaos. Misrule. The first line fulfilled.

"When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped." The Numidium. The Dwemer creation to rival the Gods themselves. The power to reshape time, to break the coil of Akatosh keeping time in line. To Break the Dragon.  
The Warp in the West, a Dragonbreak, Numidium, the Brass God, walked, and all endings were made true. Men walked in more than one place at once, for time was shattered, and the God Automaton walked. The second line fulfilled.

"When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles." The thrice-blessed, the Tribunal. First they blessed themselves with Lorkhan's Heart, becoming Living Gods. Then Azura cursed them to be Dunmer, though they made it a blessing and ushered in an age of prosperity for the Dunmer. Then they mantled the True Tribunal, Azura, Mephala and Boethiah, and so the three were blessed thrice.  
But when Dagoth Ur rose, they fell. Their power waned as his waxed. The Nerevarine, their Lord reborn, tricked by one of them to kill the other, and then betrayed and forced to kill the trickster. And so three became one.  
Then the last, the Poet, disappeared. And with it the Ministry of Truth, the mountain thrown at Vivec's city, was no longer held up. And though its fall was pushed back years through dealing with the Prince of Power, eventually the pact fell through. And the ministry of truth fell down, destroying Vivec's city. And the tremors of its impact caused Red Mountain to erupt. The Red Mountain, trembled, the thrice-blessed, failed.  
The third line fulfilled.

"When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls." The end of the Septim dynasty, the line of Dragonborn rulers hailing from Talos' line ended. No mortal could rule Tamriel entirely. Only the power of the Dov could force all lands to submit. But the rulers of Dragonblood were gone. And the Thalmor took the White-Gold Tower. The fourth line fulfilled.

"When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding." The final condition, the last barrier. The Snow Tower, High Hrothgar. Symbol of Skyrim.  
Skyrim, now torn, Imperial against Stormcloak, West against East, Battleborn against Graymane.  
Brother against Brother.  
The king killed by a once-loyal vassal. All men forced to take sides. As the people bleed, so does the land. And as the kingless land bleeds, the fifth line is fulfilled.

So now, we stand. As the Wheel turns, the World-Eater strengthens. Alduin. Destroy, Devour, Master. The world shall burn and be destroyed, but that is as it must be. For how can the world be created anew if the old world is not destroyed? It has happened before us and shall happen again.

The Blades wish for me to fight Alduin. But to fight Alduin is to fight a God, and to fight a God is foolishness. For as a coin has more than one side, so do the Gods. Akatosh, the Dragon God. One side is creation, and he was the first God. The other is destruction, and he shall be the last.  
I cannot kill Alduin any more than I could kill Akatosh, for while the two sides of a coin are different, they are made of the same material. And when that which makes it is divine, no mortal can unmake it.

The death of this world is inevitable. I could panic and stress as the Blades do, but that would make no difference.  
Instead, I will watch. I will watch the world burn, and admire the last of Tamriel, Dawn's Beauty, before Dawn breaks.

I do this with no sadness, for I know that while Dawn may break, it will come again once more, in its wonderful splendour.  
Nothing that is can last forever, and in its ending there can be found as much beauty as in its beginning or being.

So, sit beside me, on this, the highest mountain in Tamriel, and watch. For I know that some men, like me, will just want to watch the world _burn._


End file.
